Arrest du Conseil d'Etat du Roi, Du 25 Avril 1724, Portant défenses de faire sortir hors du Royaume les Métiers servant à la Fabrique des Bas

Nîmes reprint of 1779 of the decree of the Council of State of 25 April 1724 prohibiting the export of stocking frames, set from the edition printed by G. Belle in Nîmes in 1724. The decree is followed by the implementing ordinance of Louis de Bernage, intendant of Languedoc, dated 20 May 1724. Text printed in two columns divided by a row of fleurs-de-lis, on a single sheet of laid paper, with an engraved headpiece bearing the royal arms of France.

Sheet lightly soiled, a few marginal losses not affecting the text, fold marks.

Early manuscript inscription in brown ink in the upper margin, repeating the date "1779".

Introduced into France under Louis XIV, the stocking frame was already regulated by the decree of the Council of 30 March 1700, which is recalled in the preamble of the present decree. That text restricted the manufacture of frame-knitted stockings to eighteen towns, among them Nîmes and Uzès. It also forbade the removal of any frame from the kingdom, on pain of confiscation and a fine of one thousand livres. The stocking frame was indeed a costly and complex machine, whose construction kept locksmiths busy for several months. The decree of 1724 was intended to reinforce this prohibition through close control of sales and transport, yet it failed to prevent an illicit trade in frames to Spain, Russia and Prussia. The monarchy subsequently liberalised the manufacture of frame-knitted stockings by the decree of 25 March 1754, and then the export of the frames themselves in 1758.

The present reprint of 1779 appeared at the very moment when the Nîmes manufacture was losing its principal outlet. In 1778 it counted 4,550 frames, and a large share of its output was destined, by way of Spain, for the West Indies. By a royal cédula of 14 July 1778, supplemented on 21 December 1779, however, the Spanish Crown prohibited the import of numerous foreign manufactured goods. It may be supposed that this reprint answered fears that frames from Nîmes might be taken to Spain to establish a rival manufacture there. This hypothesis implies that the prohibition of 1724 was still being invoked at that date, despite the liberalisation of 1758.